It really is more dangerous than people think not only because your in a kayak out in the ocean but because your so low to the water......ive had three close calls number one.....almost took a skying king mack to the head......had a tarpon almost land on me fishing mullet schools in FL......and had a shark almost come in the boat when it took a pass at a smaller shark on the line

rays are very acrobatic...in SC you could see them jump very often cow nose and spotted? i think they were called........im just glad i never came into contact with a SPINNER SHARK....in myrtle beach, sc during the summer you could see them coming out of the water all the time.....body slammed by a shark would do some serious damage

i think this is why i keep doing it.....its like boat fishing except way more exciting at times

Did Keith go on his AI trip from Flamingo to Mid-Cape and return safely? Hmmm. I haven't heard from him. We have been having lousy weather in FLA so maybe he cancelled. (There is ice and snow in the FL Panhandle. Go figure.)

Hi Terry--thanks for your concern. I went! The big surprise of the trip was to have AlexO--WaterTriber and long-time friend--paddle up to MidCape late Fri afternoon. He was on a training paddle for the Everglades Challenge beginning Mar 1. Since at that time, I had an extra meal, we enjoyed dinner together. Next morning at first light, he was off to Highland Beach, about a 26-28 mile paddle.

Later Sat morning I headed back to Flamingo because it was forecast to be very light winds on Sunday. Well, I had headwinds as I sailed from MidCape to East Cape Sable, so I had to do lots of tacking and forward progress was slow. To complicate matters, as I neared ECS, the winds absolutely died. It would be near impossible to get back to FLM until long after dark. I stayed at ECS hoping there would be some wind the following day, Sunday. No luck. On Sunday winds were ZERO! The forecast for the next couple days was more of the same; so, I pedaled my fully loaded AI the 11 mi back to FLM. I didn't enjoy the pedaling, but it was a nice camping trip. I got to try out my foul weather gear going (cold, windy) and on the return (warm, no wind.) I also got some good video and still pictures. It is hard to have a bad camping trip in the Everglades.

Day 1--Chok to PAV Because of tides, we will launch from Chok at about 2:20 pm and make PAV about 5:30 or before. 6:20 pm sunset.

Day 2--head on down to Hog Key--about 13 mi

Day 3--fish Hog Key/Lostmans River area

Day 4--head down to Highland Beach--about 7 mi, easy day, catch sea trout on way down for dinner.

Day 5--Highland to PAV--22 miles

Day 6--Fish PAV area

Day 7--return to Chok

Other than great fishing, the highlight of the trip will be hooking up with Toby Nipper's WaterTribe boot camp group--their boot camp, not ours. They are doing 1 night at Watson Place, 3 nights on Highland Beach, then 2 on PAV, before heading into Chok. We may hook up with them for 1 night on Highland.

Update, Feb 11, 2014: Because of the weather (winds), I am beginning to plan an alternate trip: Flamingo to Chokoloskee--also a 7 day trip. Winds have been very unpredictable this year. Even the forecasters are having trouble. At this point, there are 2 possible trips planned. (1) the loop out of Chokoloskee outlined above, and (2) the 1-way trek from Flamingo to Chokoloskee. The most-favorable winds will determine which trip we (I??) do.

If you are interested in doing this trip, contact me ASAP. Post here, or email kwellma at gmail dot com, or call me 305-979-3362.

This morning I made the decision to do the Flamingo to Chokoloskee 7-day trip. Winds at the beginning of this trip & the previous one have been totally uncooperative. I will leave early Sunday, Feb 16, from the FLM marina. Aim is to reach at least East Cape Sable if light winds, or MidCape if winds freshen a bit. Expecting slow ride first day. After that, hopefully, winds will pick up so that I can move up the coast comfortably. There is a large group of WaterTribe paddlers on a "Boot Camp" training trip organized by WT veteran, WhiteCaps, aka Toby Nipper, doing a 7-day loop trip out of Chok. We will likely meet at Highland Beach, and, later on Pavilion Key. This should be an interesting trip. I'm hoping to get some video of fish and ....

MiniskirtsI’m very pleased with these “expedition” skirts, especially when mounted using the bow post. First, the bow post mount keeps the miniskirt high enough that most bow waves cannot curl up over the skirt as the bow moves through the wave. This keeps the bow wave below the miniskirt where it must push up though the skirt before it can strike the crossbar/aka and cause a splash. There are still splashes, of course, but they are relatively small and seldom reach further than the driver’s knees. Second, the miniskirts do not scoop up water if the bow dives below a wave. This is very important when loaded for camping. With a 200# male driver plus 100-150# of food, water, and gear, the boat rides low in the water. If you are running downwind in 15-18 mph winds, the bow regularly cuts through waves. This wave cutting does not seriously affect speed. However, if the bow dives below the waves, that momentarily stops the AI or greatly reduces speed. Undesirable. These miniskirts do not accentuate the diving by scooping up water or slowing the re-surfacing of the bow.

Bow Wave Splash DeflectorRegarding diving of the AI, this occurs largely when you are expedition loaded, especially on downwind runs. I now try to minimize weight in the bow and add weight in the stern. In other words, I want the bow high to minimize diving and, generally, increase speed. Cutting through waves does not significantly reduce speed, but it does cause splashes when the wave comes directly over the bow and strikes the crossbar. There was a brief discussion earlier on this thread that the bow post mount provided an ideal place to attach a bow wave splash deflector. Well, I did attach a 1”x1/16” aluminum bar across the bow mounting posts. You can see it here.

Until last week during my annual Flamingo to Chokoloskee 7-day camping trip, I had not done a downwind run to test the bow wave deflector. One day on my trip was perfect to see the bar deflector in action. It was a downwind run, steady winds of 15-16 mph, gusting to 18 mph or so. The bow only “dove” a few times in the 12-mile, open water crossing, but there was regular wave cutting. It is pretty impossible to catch the action with a still camera, so the following pictures were frames from my video.

This first frame shows the bow post and bow wave deflector bar.

The bow has cut through a wave and water is beginning to flow back along the bow directly at the bow wave deflector.

The wave has struck the bow wave deflector bar and produced a 10” high rooster tail plume of water. It is so efficient at disrupting the rearward flow of the water that, initially, most of the water does not reach the crossbar. And, no major splash occurs.

Lastly, here is simply a splash. The splash is caused solely by the bow wave deflector bar. Note, that while the splash appears quite large, none of the water is hitting the crossbar. The bow wave deflector attached to the miniskirt mounting posts clearly works.

Navionics Harbors&Lakes HD USA AppFinally, I would like to update my experience with the Samsung Tab 3 tablet with the Navionics Harbors&Lakes HD USA App. During my 7-day trip, I intended to recharge the tablet as necessary; however, before leaving home, I turned off the WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS capability. If left on, these functionalities can drain the battery. I also minimized the backlighting; although in sunlight, you have no choice but to turn up the backlight to high. During the trip, I did no more than 3-4 hrs total book reading. Every day, mostly at night, but occasionally, in the morning, I turned on the tablet. I then started the Navionics app. Although I knew exactly where I was, I often turned on the GPS function to see how long it took to locate me on the Navionics H&L chart. It always took less than 1 min to determine my location. It was quite accurate. If I did not need the GPS capability, that was turned off. I could pull up my daily tide charts, and they were absolutely great. I would look at them at night and, frequently, the next morning as I was waiting for the tide to come in and “lift my ship.” At the end of my trip, the tablet battery still showed about 90% full—amazing. The same with my "dumb" phone. If you put it in "airplane mode," it consumes very little power. It still had plenty of charge at the end of my trip. It was not necessary to use the clever charging system that I had designed. The Navionics App is useful to get a good overview of each day's planned sail, what are the camping options for the next night, and, occasionally, using the app to determine distances. It worked great.

I don't like solar chargers--they often don't stand up to saltwater environment, and they require extended periods in sun.

My simple (not so clever) solution to charging things on trips of up to 3 weeks is 3# 12-volt rechargeable battery attached to a cigarette adaptor which is fitted with a dual USB cell/tablet adaptor. Carry 2 cables for connecting your cell and tablet to the USB adaptor & you are in business. The 12-volt battery will probably charge everybody's cell/tablet for a week, even if you have 6 people on the trip. I'm sure it will also charge your GoPro if needed. This is a huge battery for charging small devices. Keep all your cables as short as possible to avoid tangles. Devices are easily charged in a few hours or overnight. The period of "3 weeks" is a guess. This system will charge things as long as the battery lasts. I've had it on my week trip and at home for a week (2 weeks total), and it is still charging strongly.

I have retired my 20-yr old galvanized trailer. It started as a power boat trailer, and rusted out badly from repeated dunking in salt water (yes, I thoroughly washed it with fresh water after each use.) I took a saber saw, cut off all the rusty parts and made it into a beautiful kayak trailer, and finally used it for 7 yrs as a Hobie AI trailer--sometimes transporting 3 AIs. It always worked great. But, all relationships come to an end.

I purchased a Hobie AI double trailer. This post describes assembling and wiring that trailer. The trailer is really a generic Trailex SUT-450 aluminum trailer. It arrived in 4 boxes. I was shocked, when opening the boxes, to have large nuts and bolts fall out, plus smaller connectors. Many of the smaller fasteners are in plastic bags which, after being shipped all over the world, develop holes and allow the contents to spill out in the boxes. Also, the spring assembles bolts/nuts came apart and floated around loose in their large shipping box. The boxes themselves had various holes in them incurred by the shipping process. In the end I had all the bolts and nuts needed to assemble the trailer, but I worried initially.

The trailer you receive weighs about 220 lbs. There is nothing on it to identify it as a "Hobie" trailer. In fact, other than a removable sticker on the 2 plastic fenders, there is nothing to identify it as a Trailex trailer. Depending on your state, this could cause you some inconvenience when it comes to licensing.

The trailer frame is assembled upside down. The shipping boxes can be cut up and used to cushion the frame. These frame pieces each have several groves, like track lighting, which allow free positioning of the "angle brackets." The brackets are than fastened to the frame using T-bolts (slide along the groves) and a nut. This image shows the frame: 2 cross bars plus 2 side rails fastened together with angle brackets. I set the distance between the front and rear cross bars at 67"--the distance on center between the Hobie cradles.

Aluminum T-bolt and nut fasteners. These were used to fasten the aluminum frame together.

Angle brackets & fasteners

Steel bolts fastened the springs to the spring hangers. With springs installed, the axel is in position to attach with U-bolts to the spring.

Frame, springs, & axel are assembled.

Turn the frame over and bolt on the wheels.

The frame is done.

Now the wiring. This is the way the wiring harness arrived.

After the wiring harness was untangled, it had to be snaked through the tongue to the rear.

The wiring to the lights should have been easy, but I had a hard time understanding the instructions. I was especially confused by the statement, "3 Brown wires and 1 green wire need to be attached to the passenger side light terminals." Here is my schematic of the wiring. Quite simple, really, although the routing can also be a bit confusing. I spent a lot of time looking at the instructions on this point. The instructions could be much simpler with a wiring diagram and more pictures.

The only indication that this was a Hobie trailer was the final statement in the assembly manual: "Please refer to the instructions provided with your Hobie cradles for proper installation." Those cradles were very easy to attach using the T-bolts and nuts. The cross bars for attachment were 67" on centers, as mentioned previously. The cradle instructions do not specify distance between cradles.

Trailex deserves credit for an excellent design of a light-weight aluminum trailer which the owner can assemble and wire. It is their SUT-450 model and has a carrying capacity of 450#. It weighs about 220#. The tires (480x8, 4 lug) appear adequate. I plan to get many years use out of this trailer, but it will NEVER be immersed in salt water because the springs, axel, and wheel rims are steel and will all corrode. The shipping containers need to be improved so that fasteners are not lost. The manual for assembly is fair but could be improved, especially the wiring section. My solo assembly and wiring time: ca 10-11 hrs.

I have not used the trailer yet. I will this weekend because we have a major camping trip coming up and will be driving about 200 mi round trip. My only concern has been the small tires, but people say they are just fine.